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Aha! http://www.religioustolerance.org/lds_poly1.htm
POLYGYNY IN THE MORMON MOVEMENT:
In Bountiful, British Columbia, Canada
Bountiful, British Columbia:
The town of Bountiful was founded in southeastern British Columbia, Canada, during 1947. It is located in the Creston Valley, near Cranbrook and Creston, BC. It is in a rugged area about 40 miles northeast of the junction of the borders of Idaho, Montana, and British Columbia. Its estimated population in 1998 was 600. 6 It has since grown to about 1,000. Almost all residents are the descendents of about six men.
Most, if not all, of the residents of Bountiful are Mormons, members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS). They follow the original teachings of Joseph Smith which includes polygyny: the practice of a single man marrying multiple wives.
In 1890, Wilford Woodruff, the fourth president of the main Mormon denomination, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), issued a manifesto. It was a revelation from God called the "Great Accommodation". It suspended the solemnization of new Mormon plural marriages for an indefinite interval. Since that time, all Mormons who enter into new polygamous marriages have been excommunicated from LDS. However, the church did support existing plural marriages at the time of the manifesto.
The FLDS was founded in 1935 by a group of polygynist Mormons who had been ejected from the LDS. The FLDS' main membership is now centered in the twin cities of Colorado City, AZ and Hildale, UT. All administrative power is concentrated in a single leader, who is currently Warren Jeffs, (1956 -) 7 He appointed a single administrator over the Bountiful group: Winston Blackmore. Jeffs later purged Blackmore, replacing him with Bishop James Oler. Blackmore has since organized a splinter Fundamentalist Mormon group. 9
The FLDS is a secretive organization. Little precise information about the FLDS is available to outsiders. As a result, most of the information comes from critics of the FLDS or from ex-FLDS members who have left the group. These can be unreliable sources. Even less information is available about the Canadian group. They have a policy of not talking to the media.
FLDS beliefs and practices:
Polygyny presents obvious problems for a religious group or community. Since roughly equal numbers of boy and girl babies are born, it takes extraordinary steps to provide men with multiple wives. Where do the excess males go? Where do the surplus females come from?
Benjamin Bistline spent part of his childhood among polygynists in the main FLDS group in what is now called Colorado City, AZ. He has written a book about his experiences. 8 He has observed that in order to maintain a culture in which most men have many wives, it is necessary to persuade most male youths to leave the community at a relatively young age. Teenaged women with restricted education are then matched up with older men, preferably before they develop an interest in boys their own age. After an unregistered marriage, the new wives financially support the family by applying for welfare as single mothers. It is quite possible that the same policies are pursued in the Bountiful group. The U.S. and Canadian branches appear to be closely linked. There have been allegations in the U.S. and Canadian media that teenage women have been transported from the U.S. group to supply men in Bountiful with additional brides.
According to The Economist magazine, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Fifth Estate TV program, some of the unusual theological beliefs and practices of the FLDS are:
Men must have at least three wives and as many children as possible in order to enter the highest level of heaven, and to have the opportunity to evolve into a God.
A woman's role is to serve a man and be submissive to his needs.
Women who disobey men will have their souls burn in Hell for eternity.
Children are usually required to leave school at the age of 13 or 14.
Their marriage ceremony consists of the woman placing her hand in the man's hand in what is called "the patriarchal grip."
A man is not permitted to have sexual intercourse with one of his wives if she is pregnant.
"If...an older man seduces a 13-year old girl....in his own mind he doesn't commit sexual abuse.....he views himself as married." (Comment by Ron Barton, special investigator of "closed societies," at the Utah State Attorney's Office)
Because all the plural marriages, except perhaps for the first one, are celestial, and not legal unions, FLDS men are not polygamists; they are only adulterers in the eyes of the state. Adultery is not a criminal act. (Comment by former Bishop Winston Blackmore of Bountiful) 9,10,11
Also according to The Economist, critics say that the schools run by the Canadian branch of the FLDS provide minimal education. Boys are trained as farm and forest laborers. Girls are trained to be "young brides and mothers....Women who have fled tell of girls as young as 13 being married off to polygamous men three times their age; of babies born to girls of 14 and 15; and of under-age girls being brought in from similar American communes for arranged marriages and to serve as 'breeding stock'."
According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, "...some men have close to 30 wives and father up to 80 children....teenage girls are married to men old enough to be their grandfathers.10
Initial bigamy allegations:
In 1990, some women who had fled Bountiful demanded an investigation into why the police were ignoring the multiple marriages in the town. Two years later, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) conducted an investigation in Bountiful and recommended that charges of polygamy be laid against two men. 9 The Attorney General of the province of British Columbia decided to not proceed. The office obtained two independent legal opinions. Both agreed that the courts would probably find the federal anti-bigamy law to be unconstitutional. It conflicts with the Mormons' religious freedom as guaranteed by Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms -- the country's constitution. If brought to court, the Province would probably lose the case.
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"WEMF is...." and I can't remember the rest because I didn't write it down.
- Blackness at WEMF 2007
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